At the start of the Coronavirus crisis, hospital canteens were either permanently shut or had reduced opening hours, and staff working in COVID-19 wards could not go to other areas of the hospital.  This meant some front line staff struggled for options when it came to meals.

Food for St George's staff

The Cresidents started a project on 10 April 2020 calling for funds and volunteers to provide meals to front line staff at St George's.  In the first 10 days 28 neighbours volunteered and £800 was raised in donations, and other donations were made direct to Furloughed Foodies London.

Farida of Café du Parc volunteered to make batches of 50 sandwiches at a time for delivery by The Cresidents to St George’s, with The Cresidents funding the costs of ingredients. Alex and Gill of The Patio bistro in Durnsford Road also generously donated batches of freshly baked cakes.  A really big thank you to everyone who volunteered or donated. 

On 30 April Janet Thurtell asked for neighbour volunteers to help bake cupcakes for delivery to local hospitals as part of The Old Wimbledonians meals project in conjunction with The Alexandra in Wimbledon and The Rose and Crown in Wimbledon Village.  By 6 May 2020 just short of 3,500 cakes/muffins had been distributed to 7 different hospitals (St Georges, Kingston, St Hellier, East Surrey, Epsom and Guildford, some firestations and carehomes), using donated muffin mix. Well done everyone - what a superb team effort. Muffins baked by Vicky Parry of The Crescent shown off by Janet's sons Cameron and Ross below. More photos shown on our baking page.

There were a number of projects inviting local support:

https://www.furloughedfoodieslondon.co.uk/  - a project started by furloughed or redundant professional cooks to deliver cooked meals to NHS staff of London hospitals, including St George's.

www.KommunityKitchen.co.uk - set up to deliver meals to households unable to go out, based out of the kitchen at Arthur's Cafe in the community hall. 

https://wimbledon.foodbank.org.uk/ - always looking for volunteers and donations of food or funds.

www.wimbledonguild.co.uk - always looking for donations and volunteers.

By the time The Cresidents project to provide food to frontline staff at St George's came to an end we had raised £1180 and spent £732.  The balance of £448 was donated to Furloughed Foodies London who were still delivering meals to other London hospitals.